Product Reviews

Wissenschaft & Fortschritt (Science and Progress) is one of five theme sets from Kosmos for its popular Settlers of Catan card game. The cards in this set almost all appeared previously in the discontinued Tournament set (together with the Ritter & Hndler theme set, Wissenschaft & Fortschritt contains all of the cards that were in the Tournament set).

This theme set can be played with the basic set of cards to make an expanded basic game, or along with the basic cards and the other four theme sets you can mix-and-match cards to make a deck to play a tournament game against someone else who has likewise built a deck from another set of cards.

The cards in Wissenschaft & Fortschritt add to the basic game several scientific advances; additionally it includes the buildings that these advances enable to be erected. The central card in this set is the University, which is essentially an enhanced version of the Library from the basic game. With the University you can add a cannon or a building crane, or play several other cards that allow you to gain resources and other goodies.

By and large, the cards in Wissenschaft & Fortschritt make for a more stable game that has a greater focus on gaining victory points rather than disturbing the opponent's efforts. This will appeal more to those who dislike overly aggressive play.

Fans of the Settlers of Catan card game will definitely approve of the Wissenschaft & Fortschritt theme set; it adds some very useful cards to the game that you'll wonder how you ever did without before.